The Alfa Romeo brand's future has been put under review by Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne.
With Alfa sales dropping and the brand losing money, Marchionne is weighing up how to refresh Alfa's line-up using Chrysler platforms.
"We need to work a lot harder on Alfa to make an intelligent decision that effectively preserves the highest possible value to Fiat," Marchionne told Automotive News Europe.
Marchionne also stressed the need to adopt - and stick to - a long-term strategy with Alfa, in order to turn it into a profitable company, citing the company's numerous reinventions in recent years.
"We need to stop doing it. You cannot be a newborn Christian every four years. It's the same religion, eventually you need to own a religion and carry it to conclusion," said Marchionne.
Outlining Alfa's options, Marchionne said Alfa could replace the 159 and 166 with saloons built in North America on Chrysler platforms, but unique to Alfa and sold by Alfa worldwide.
"Certainly the availability of D and E segment (platforms) in the United States which are capable of being Alfa Romeoized is there. We need to look at the economics of that opportunity," Marchionne said.
Alternatively, investment in the brand could be frozen following the launch of the 147 replacement, which is now expected to be called the Giulietta.
That would leave Alfa with the Giulietta and the Mito as its only fresh models, with the 159, Brera Coupe, Spider and GT coupe continuing to be sold.
Last year, Alfa sold 103,000 new cars compared with 203,000 in 2000. The brand has lost between 200 million (£182m) and 400 million euros (£364m) a year in the past 10 years, according to reports.
Marchionne - who also ruled out merging Alfa and Dodge - is expected to announce the future of Alfa in February or March next year.
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Re: Alfa's future under review
It is often the case, the better the advert/marketing, the worse the product. Just look at Microsoft, Dell, MacDonalds, Cadburys. Truly awful products but through clever advertising and aggressive marketing are sector leaders in sales terms, yet all truly awful products. They also deliver something else, consistent quality. People will quite often settle for second best if they know what they are getting everytime without the variance.
I suspect Alfa did, and probaly still do, have a small marketing budget. Although, with the MiTo, they hade a large budget for new media and social enterprise. So perhaps, things are changing.
I still say a rebadged Fiat is better than a rebadged Chrysler.
Re: Alfa's future under review
I really like Alfa's two new cars, I think they are good looking and I expect them to do well. If they ever make it to America I will be the first on line for the new Giulietta. I shudder at the thought of how Fiat has done so little in proper development of the Alfa brand. They had done pretty much the same thing most large companies would have done, that is stick a badge and some extra trim on their existing platforms. With these two new models they should have the premium compact end of the market comfortably covered, a sedan back version of the Giulietta would make it more complete like Golf and Jetta. Next should be rear wheel drive BMW 3 and 5 series sized sedans. A not too large SUV/crossover car for the U.S. would do well and only then would a good, and in its purest form, a light compact two seat performance sports car as the cherry on top of the cake make any sense. Everything gets stale, these two new models will too in time. Over and over auto companies seem to wait until their sales take a big slide and their backs are against the wall before going into panic mode for new designs. All these years and they don't have a rear drive platform, they had over 20 years to think about it, and they don't have a rear platform of their own. Staying ahead and keeping it fresh is the answer for continued sales. When Alfa was here in America they did nearly zero television advertising, there was only the very rare magazine ad which usually was for the old spider. Your not going to pay the bills with one two seater sports car, that is a product for a healthy car company that is doing well with their bread and butter ranges. Good television advertisement is very expensive but look what the Japanese and Koreans did with it here in the U.S. These companies brain washed our entire country into buying their cars. The Koreans were able to improve and market the crap box Hyundai and Kia's and that should be a lesson to all that are struggling. I'm embarrassed to tell you how many americans don't even know they own a Korean car. Because of the clever advertisements they think it's american! Honda is able to sell this awful looking little appliance that has the power of a Vespa but could easily be blown into the weeds by a Vespa called the "Fit". If these companies can market crap like this how can it be that art designed fun to drive cars like Alfas can't? Alfa needs to expand its market using the U.S. They need to do it with good competitive products and lots of clever television ads. It's time to feed and water this plant and let it grow.
Re: Alfa's future under review
The oddest thing is the talk about "alfa-romeoization of chrysler d&e platforms". Agreed on E (Chrysler 300) if and when they decide to make a 166 successor, but the Chrysler group model plan clearly states that the Chrysler D platform(s) in the form of Charger, Sebring, Jeep Compass, etc will all be killed off and replaced by the so-called C-EVO. This is the platform of the Giulietta, ie a reworked version with (among other things) new rear multilink (instead of torsion beam) of the C, aka current Bravo and Delta and former Stilo.
This being the plan, why would they build a 159 replacement on a Sebring platform if they are going to make the Sebring replacement on a Giulietta platform? It makes no sense, neither that nor keeping alive the overweight and unsuccessful 159/Brera/Spider as well as 156/147-based GT. They should just make variations on the Giulietta (saloon, estate, coupe, etc) and replace those ASAP. Also, if the C-evo is good enough to underpin the next Compass and Liberty/Cherokee, it should work just as well under a Kamal-style Alfa SUV.